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Should the oil pump pickup be welded

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#3 ·
I lost one motor to an oil pump pick-up vibrating loose (tire shake can do some interesting things to the drive line) ever since then I do not rely upon the bolt and tab, but go back to the old school weld it solid.


Larger Dave
 
#4 ·
ditto to L dave, welded is best, you know it wont come loose. I think the bolted bracket is 99.9% good to go, but there is that .1%.
and dave, no doubt about tire shake! the amount of loose hardware on a chassis after particularly violent tire shake will blow your mind, we had all the bolts for the front of the front clip come loose and or fall out once. you really need to watch nuts/bolts on any car subject to tire shake.
 
#11 ·
The proper way is to weld it full circle. Below you can see how we send them out. If your unit makes over 450 HP don't use the stock style screens, the factory style or the style Melling sells, they will eventually break off at the tube. Use the HD ones specific to the pan. The pump has to be entirely dissassembled before welding. If you look closely at the weld it would be hard to imagine that ever breaking loose. We've literally done thousands over the years, for ourselves and for our customers, and haven't lost one. Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. "Larger Dave" is "dead-on" about the vibration in that area. Upon reassembly the SB's, M-55's, get the #M98015 Hi-Pressure spring and the BB's, M-77's, get the M77020, also a Hi-Pressure spring.

 
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#12 ·
This is an oil pickup after its bolt 'vibrated off'

Image


When I bought my car the pan had an oil leak. I removed the pan and found this mess inside! I believe the previous owner experienced this issue and thought there might be major damage inside. LUCKILY everything was fine! Ordered a new pump with welded screen from Summit that worked great
 
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#15 ·
You're good at a half inch,..let's say between 3/8" and 5/8" is ok. It's not that critical unless you get the pick-up too close to the pan (1/4" or less) which would create blockage or if you do a lot of racing and the pick-up is too high off the pan sump.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Definately a full weld if its a pressin style. I like 1/4"-3/8" clearance from pickup to the bottom of the pan.

Some of the new Melling pumps have a bolt on style pickup. That created a problem for me because the pickup that fits my pan is only available as a press fit. I wound up fabbing up a flange for the press-fit style pickup and welding the flange to the pickup. Now the pickup presses in AND bolts on.

Image
 
#18 ·
very nice Eric!
 
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#20 ·
Eric68 said:
Definately a full weld if its a pressin style. I like 1/4"-3/8" clearance from pickup to the bottom of the pan.

Some of the new Melling pumps have a bolt on style pickup. That created a problem for me because the pickup that fits my pan is only available as a press fit. I wound up fabbing up a flange for the press-fit style pickup and welding the flange to the pickup. Now the pickup presses in AND bolts on.

Image
Click to expand...

Eric, is that a Melling 10552/10553 style pump? Was the pickup originally designed for an M55 pump? I have a 10552 pump but none of the oil pan makers have a pickup for it.

Thanks. -Neil
 
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Eric68
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